Music Theory for melodies

T

thewanderingdaoist

New member
Alright, as of late, i've gotten really into trance/house music, i was wondering if anyone could give me tips on what makes a good trance melody? basslines are simple enough to grasp, but anyone have any ideas on what makes trance/progressive house melodies kick?

hit me back
-=[TWD]=-
 
I don't know what kind of gear your using but first off i think you should just sit down with your medium in a non-composing manner and just listen to the sounds. play around using three note chords. Try moving one of the notes up or down and listen to how the overall emotional effect of the chord changes. this is probably a good way to start. the more familiar you are with the sonic landscape and the patterns associated with the keying of the chords the sooner you will "hear" those melodies. as for the rythms, try using 1/8 note triplets with different chords. if you are using a synth with an arppegiator (an arppegio is the same as a chord only the notes are played on at a time) use the up or down or alternating patterns. you could also try using a stuttering syth type rythm. Dividing your measure into 16th notes, trigger the first three notes then rest then trigger etc. 123*5_7*,9,10,11,*,13_,*,15,*

*=rest
_=hold

I hope that makes sense

Anyway i hope this helps a little
 
okay, my gear fruityloops, getting a controller keyboard (cheap *** casio thing (ctk-651 i think)... rebirth, and soon reason... k, what exactly do you mean by 1/8 triplets, everything else made sense in that... except, to my knowledge, i thought the purpose of an appregiator in a keyboard/synth was because back in the day the first synths couldn't do chords properly so they put in the appregiators to kinda get around the problem...

hit me back!
TWD
 
I make trance too and I'm sure about the 1/8 triplets either. I know what they are, but if you used them, you'd have the meanest double-tempo shuffle effect.
Maybe he means the duration of the note, I don't know.

Anyway: Listen to ALOT of trance, if that's what you wanna do. I meen. ALOT. All the time, even when you are taking a nap.
There are no rules to melodies in trance, except that the synthlines are supposed to be the main base of the song. The melodys should be able to contain the entire song.
I most other styles, you tend to put vocals in to give the song a little extra.
 
Sorry about the confusion on my last reply. I was talking about 8th note triplets using your arpeggiator. It is only one of several ways of producing synth rythyms for any style of music. I'm sorry but I find it hard to properly convey what i'm thinking. If you were with me on my keyboards I could bang off a few trance riffs for you and show what i'm talking about a little more clearly. I only have internet access via cafes right now so I can't really send any audio files to demonstrate. If I can get access to any of my friend's computers I could probaby write some riffs and give you a written idea of how to use/achieve these formats.
Other than this, I fully agree with the above reply(sorry I can't remeber who wrote it)you should listen to alot of trance and alot of uplifting(or saddening)music. It would be nice to say that all of are ideas come completely from within but I think that any musician uses their medium to try and potray the infinite array of emotions we all feel and music is one of the most powerful things that influences our emotions.
Sorry about the whole 8th note thing but I can't properly explain it. I'd like to elaborate more but I gotta run. I'll try and find a way to explain this a little better as writing is not one of my most fluent mediums.

[Edited by N7H on 02-27-2001 at 02:02 PM]
 
u could put a delay on a synth and hit a note here and there in tasty positions and adjust the duration of the delay as it resounds back, u can do that in fruity loops, also get the pitch to change as it feeds back to. I don't use the program, but MichaelMD who runs http://www.spraci.com has used this technique to excellent effect.
ps nice name - r u travelling?
 
in terms of theory

remembering uni daze...could use the Aeolian mode - which goes 1 2 flat3 4 5 flat6 flat7 tonic - in the key of C that would be C D Eflat F G Aflat Bflat C

...could also use the "Phrygian MAJOR mode" -\ which goes
1 flat2 3 4 5 flat6 7 tonic - in the key of C that would be C Dflat E F G Aflast C

to get ur head around the theory on the keys, try playing up and down the scale in intervals, eg 13 24 36 47 58
eg 14 25 36 47 58
eg 16 27 38 49 5-11
etc. just to get the scale in there a bit. then carve little buddhas in the form of cool ostinatoes. for a description of ostinatoes research classical composing techniques.
orchestral rhythms can be used subtley in trance i reckon.

Just suggestions.
 
i'm assuming you meant my name.. who isn't wandering?

any advice on a good cheap controller..

oh yeah, also, is reason worth the money? (anyone but mano, he seems pretty die hard about it.. but i'm die hard about fruityloops)

ps. my nick, for those who don't know, is the title of a series of books... by deng ming dao (romanization of chinese names not fun, so i may have spelled it wrong).. read em... they're epic, you'll like em if you liked crouching tiger..

sate, jaa bai bai!
TWD
 
to get ur head around the theory on the keys, try playing up and down the scale in intervals, eg 13 24 36 47 58
eg 14 25 36 47 58
eg 16 27 38 49 5-11

-- okay, i'm really confused, can you explain the eg.'s a little?

thanks

TWD
 
Ask the good-\\\cheap-\\\\\controller Q in the Synth section. Would be interested to see the replies.

Argh! see what happens when i put a dash?|?|?|\\\ and a question mark...

Anyways the problem stops after a bit. But it sucks. That's why i didn't put a dash between
1-3; 2-4; 3-5;
etc etc . Okz that little eg. OVERLAID over say the phrygian major mode would go C-E; Dflat-F; E-G. It's called playing up and down the scale in thirds. You can do this in fourths fifths sixths sevenths.

Playing up and down the scale in thirds does not necessarily mean there will be an interval of a third betwixt each note, it means that you skip a scale note and hit the next above, so play C note, D flat comes next so skip it and play E. THEN progress to Dflat - play it, Ecomes next so skip it and play F. THEN progress up the scale to E, play it, F comes next so skip it and play G.

You get a much better feel for getting around this way. It's actually a jazzers approach but hey jaz exploded music theory and opened up the dna of it and techno is the new rock and trance could be the new cool jazz, so ...whatever.

Can you see how you would play up and down in fourths? (not an actual fourth between each note, but you play the root note C to start with, skip __ notes, play F, then go up to the next note to excersize after C, this is Dflat so play it, then skip __ notes and play G)
hehehe have a go. you will hear the sound i am getting at
maybe one day i could teach u harmonised arps overlaid over weird scales.

P
 
okay, that makes ALOT of sense now..

btw, i prefer to think of techno as kinda new classical.. (with people like aphextwin, kurt mansell as the bethoven figured, moby as the say mozart... and trent reznor as... well, god i guess..)

thanks for the explanation!
 
or maybe it is the new classical rock, kinda like Yngwie Malmsteen, hehe.
but seriously it is all soooo wide open at the mo', as if that doof beat was like a jackhammer battering downs the walls of convention (and good taste some would say but they probably have only heard generic techno).
 
food is doof backwards

yeas i come from Byron and heaps of people use the word, like 'r u going to the beach doof?' or 'im gonna hitch out the the forest doof if no-one gives me a lift first'. or 'lets go doofin'. in sydney we call them 'outdoor raves' or 'forest parties'. haven't been to one in Sydney but am gonna try and get a gig doing a weird live techno performance idea i hatched the other day.
 
8th Note Triplets

Hey,

Im not sure if its what the original replyer mwas trying to say ... but a true 8th not triplet would be three notes played over a quarter note time quanta (hehe quanta) ... so normally a quater note has 2 eith notes ... but hen u break up the quarter note into 3 beats its called and eith note triplet :) (im pretty sure thats correct) ...

Now what he might have been trying to decribe was just playing 3 eighth notes in succession which whould last 1 1/2 quarter notes in time.

Either way both can sound good so experiment with both. :)

Hope that helps,

Dan
 
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